A woman who bombarded Lancashire Police staff with thousands of abusive and threatening messages has been jailed for more than two years.
Tracey Partington’s behaviour had a detrimental effect on both the well-being of staff and on the force’s ability to respond to genuine emergencies when they were tied up investigating her false claims.
One officer in particular was subjected to more than 1,000 text messages of what were described as vile and disgusting content.
Partington’s campaign of behaviour began in 2017 and she was jailed for four months in 2018 when the messages stopped. They started again, however, when she was released.
Each contact had to be logged and assessed or deployed to see whether the threat was credible, causing extreme demand and stress in the Force Control Room.
Partington, 41, of Hornby Road, Blackpool tried to cover her tracks by using different mobile phones to send her vile messages but following enquiries she was arrested in September last year.
She pleaded guilty to harassment – putting a person in fear of violence and breach of restraining order between September and October 2019 and was sentenced yesterday (Tuesday, January 21st) to 27 months in prison.
She was also given a lifetime restraining order with one of the conditions not to contact Lancashire Constabulary or its employees except in a genuine matter requiring police involvement
Detective Chief Inspector Lee Wilson, of West Police, said: “Almost daily and on many occasions several times a day calls threatening to attack police officers using weapons and firearms or explosive devices were being received. These were deployed to, depleting the force’s ability to answer genuine calls for service.
“Suffice to say Ms Partington has proved to be a recurring, unpleasant and difficult thorn in the side of Lancashire Police for several years now and I welcome the sentence which will hopefully mitigate the impact of her behaviour.”
